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Body of firefighter from Orange City found

Published: Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 5:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 1:51 p.m.

About a month before firefighter Jerry Perdomo was murdered in a house off a dirt road in rural central Maine, the 31-year-old father of two traveled there and got into a verbal skirmish with the man now accused of killing him, a report shows.

The Orange City man's body was found Wednesday morning on land owned by the family of Daniel Porter, the suspect in Perdomo's murder. Maine investigators said the motive for the killing was drug-related and that the two had previously exchanged death threats.

Porter filed a complaint against Perdomo on Jan. 8 with sheriff's deputies saying he suspected Perdomo had thrown rocks at the windows of Porter's house in Newburgh, Maine.

Porter also said Perdomo, a Seminole County firefighter, threatened to cut off Porter's hands and kill him.

Perdomo, in turn, told deputies who took the complaint that Porter had threatened to shoot him with a machine gun and put him in a wood chipper.

The exchange between the two men and the complaint of threats are part of the evidence that led investigators to Porter this month after Perdomo was reported missing.

The firefighter's body was found Wednesday in a dense wooded area in the central Maine town of Newburgh, Maine State Police said. An autopsy will be done later this week.

Earlier this week, Tonya Perdomo -- she could not be reached Wednesday -- told reporters her husband had gone to Maine to help a friend move and that Perdomo was a family man.

But police reports released by Maine investigators paint a different picture: one of a man with a mistress who traveled to the state to see his girlfriend and carry out drug-related business.

Maine authorities said Tuesday that Perdomo had been murdered over a drug-related issue; Porter's girlfriend Cheyanne Nowak told investigators that Perdomo and Porter had a business relationship that involved drugs, the arrest report states. Porter told investigators that he owed Perdomo $3,000.

AN IRAQ WAR VET

It's not clear what kind of drugs were involved, but in a deposition given by Perdomo in 2008 in connection with an auto negligence lawsuit he filed that year, the Seminole County firefighter said he was in the U.S. Marines and spent time in Iraq and Kuwait. He said he had nightmares and flashbacks and suffered with combat post traumatic stress disorder.

He also said he was taking painkillers after a knee operation.

Before his body was found Wednesday, investigators said they were looking into whether Perdomo had been running pills up to Maine from Florida.

On a Facebook page dedicated to the search for Perdomo, someone posted this message on Wednesday:

"To those of you who want to judge Jerry: Have you ever traded some of your pills for something or had prescriptions filled you weren't using to give to your friend or relative? ... Many of us have participated in similar behavior but not to a degree we got caught up in an activity that would result in our death. So, let's not be so harsh but instead be thankful this didn't happen to us or one of our loved ones and feel compassion for those who knew and loved Jerry who will suffer tremendously over his murder."

Perdomo's body was found about 9:30 a.m. by a Maine game warden and his dog, about a half mile from Dahlia Farm Road, said Steve McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety. The body was concealed and found on land that belongs to the Porter family.

MISSING PERSON REPORTS

Perdomo had been reported missing by his wife, Tonya Perdomo, and by his girlfriend in Maine, Lisa Gould of Bangor, on the same day, Feb. 19, Porter's arrest report shows.

The last time Perdomo spoke to his wife in Orange City was probably a couple of hours before his death, Porter's arrest report shows.

Perdomo called his wife in Orange City at 7:41 p.m. Feb. 16 and told her he was "riding down a dirt road in Maine," the arrest report states. That was the last time the two spoke, police said.

That was when Perdomo and Porter were possibly together riding around in Perdomo's rented Toyota. Jackson is a town 35 miles southwest of Bangor.

Kip O'Brien, a Bangor firefighter and a part-time private investigator working for the Perdomo family, said Hadley Mill is a dirt road with few houses on it.

According to the arrest report, Porter's girlfriend Nowak told police that Perdomo followed her to Porter's father's house at 633 Hadley Mill that evening at 6:30 p.m.

Nowak said she and Perdomo arrived at the Jackson house and she left shortly thereafter at 7 p.m. When she returned to the Hadley Mill house at 9 that evening, Nowak said Perdomo and his Toyota were gone. When she asked Porter about Perdomo, he told her Perdomo had gone back to Gould's house in Bangor.

The couple argued briefly, though, and Nowak said she went to her mother's house. Nowak said she never entered Porter's Hadley Mill home that night.

Gould, meanwhile, told detectives she had last seen Perdomo at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 16. Gould said Perdomo had arrived at her home the morning of Feb. 16 -- he had driven there from Orange City on Feb. 15 -- and he left her house that afternoon armed with a Glock handgun. He also had his wallet and two cellphones with him and told Gould that he was going to meet someone who owed him money, the arrest report states.

When Porter was questioned, he told investigators that Perdomo came to Maine to collect on a $3,000 debt Porter owed him, the report shows.

Porter says after Perdomo arrived at the Hadley Mill house, he and Perdomo went out for a ride and drank beer.

That may have been the moment when Perdomo telephoned his wife.

EVIDENCE: THREATS AND BLOOD

According to the report, Porter and Perdomo then played pool at the Hadley Mill house. That's when Porter said Perdomo began threatening him and his family, the report shows.

Investigators later found drops of blood, a piece of skull and a shattered picture window with traces of blood on it at the Hadley Mill house, the report states.

Because they did not have a DNA sample of Perdomo's, investigators then asked Gerardo Perdomo -- Perdomo's father who had gone up to Bangor to search for his son -- for a DNA sample, the report shows. When the results of the blood found at the Hadley Mill house were tested, it showed that it belonged to a male offspring of Gerardo Perdomo.

The morning of Feb. 17, police said Porter drove Perdomo's gold Toyota to the parking lot of a Walmart in Bangor.

The suspect then walked to a nearby supermarket called the Hannaford Store and threw a plastic bag into a garbage container outside the store, police said. Porter's movements at both the Walmart parking lot and at Hannaford's were caught by surveillance cameras.

The plastic bag, according to investigators, contained two cell phones and a black leather wallet.

Later that same afternoon, Porter called his friend Jason Roberts and asked Roberts if he could borrow his truck, the report states. When Porter returned the truck two hours later, the vehicle was muddy, police said.

On Friday, when Maine investigators questioned Porter in Connecticut -- he had gone there to see his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother -- and confronted the suspect about the contents of the plastic bag, his eyes welled up with tears, the report shows. He refused to tell police where Perdomo's body was.

A detective from the Orange Police Department in Orange, Conn. -- the city where Porter's mother lives -- told Maine investigators that Porter told him that when he went to see his family, he told them it would likely be the last time they saw him as a "free man."

<p><p>About a month before firefighter Jerry Perdomo was murdered in a house off a dirt road in rural central Maine, the 31-year-old father of two traveled there and got into a verbal skirmish with the man now accused of killing him, a report shows. </p></p><p><p>The Orange City man's body was found Wednesday morning on land owned by the family of Daniel Porter, the suspect in Perdomo's murder. Maine investigators said the motive for the killing was drug-related and that the two had previously exchanged death threats. </p></p><p><p>Porter filed a complaint against Perdomo on Jan. 8 with sheriff's deputies saying he suspected Perdomo had thrown rocks at the windows of Porter's house in Newburgh, Maine. </p></p><p><p>Porter also said Perdomo, a Seminole County firefighter, threatened to cut off Porter's hands and kill him. </p></p><p><p>Perdomo, in turn, told deputies who took the complaint that Porter had threatened to shoot him with a machine gun and put him in a wood chipper. </p></p><p><p>The exchange between the two men and the complaint of threats are part of the evidence that led investigators to Porter this month after Perdomo was reported missing. </p></p><p><p>The firefighter's body was found Wednesday in a dense wooded area in the central Maine town of Newburgh, Maine State Police said. An autopsy will be done later this week. </p></p><p><p>Earlier this week, Tonya Perdomo -- she could not be reached Wednesday -- told reporters her husband had gone to Maine to help a friend move and that Perdomo was a family man. </p></p><p><p>But police reports released by Maine investigators paint a different picture: one of a man with a mistress who traveled to the state to see his girlfriend and carry out drug-related business. </p></p><p><p>Maine authorities said Tuesday that Perdomo had been murdered over a drug-related issue; Porter's girlfriend Cheyanne Nowak told investigators that Perdomo and Porter had a business relationship that involved drugs, the arrest report states. Porter told investigators that he owed Perdomo $3,000.</p></p><p><p><b>AN IRAQ WAR VET</b> </p></p><p><p>It's not clear what kind of drugs were involved, but in a deposition given by Perdomo in 2008 in connection with an auto negligence lawsuit he filed that year, the Seminole County firefighter said he was in the U.S. Marines and spent time in Iraq and Kuwait. He said he had nightmares and flashbacks and suffered with combat post traumatic stress disorder. </p></p><p><p>He also said he was taking painkillers after a knee operation. </p></p><p><p>Before his body was found Wednesday, investigators said they were looking into whether Perdomo had been running pills up to Maine from Florida. </p></p><p><p>On a Facebook page dedicated to the search for Perdomo, someone posted this message on Wednesday: </p></p><p><p>"To those of you who want to judge Jerry: Have you ever traded some of your pills for something or had prescriptions filled you weren't using to give to your friend or relative? ... Many of us have participated in similar behavior but not to a degree we got caught up in an activity that would result in our death. So, let's not be so harsh but instead be thankful this didn't happen to us or one of our loved ones and feel compassion for those who knew and loved Jerry who will suffer tremendously over his murder." </p></p><p><p>Perdomo's body was found about 9:30 a.m. by a Maine game warden and his dog, about a half mile from Dahlia Farm Road, said Steve McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety. The body was concealed and found on land that belongs to the Porter family.</p></p><p><p><b>MISSING PERSON REPORTS</b> </p></p><p><p>Perdomo had been reported missing by his wife, Tonya Perdomo, and by his girlfriend in Maine, Lisa Gould of Bangor, on the same day, Feb. 19, Porter's arrest report shows. </p></p><p><p>The last time Perdomo spoke to his wife in Orange City was probably a couple of hours before his death, Porter's arrest report shows. </p></p><p><p>Perdomo called his wife in Orange City at 7:41 p.m. Feb. 16 and told her he was "riding down a dirt road in Maine," the arrest report states. That was the last time the two spoke, police said. </p></p><p><p>That was when Perdomo and Porter were possibly together riding around in Perdomo's rented Toyota. Jackson is a town 35 miles southwest of Bangor. </p></p><p><p>Kip O'Brien, a Bangor firefighter and a part-time private investigator working for the Perdomo family, said Hadley Mill is a dirt road with few houses on it. </p></p><p><p>According to the arrest report, Porter's girlfriend Nowak told police that Perdomo followed her to Porter's father's house at 633 Hadley Mill that evening at 6:30 p.m. </p></p><p><p>Nowak said she and Perdomo arrived at the Jackson house and she left shortly thereafter at 7 p.m. When she returned to the Hadley Mill house at 9 that evening, Nowak said Perdomo and his Toyota were gone. When she asked Porter about Perdomo, he told her Perdomo had gone back to Gould's house in Bangor. </p></p><p><p>The couple argued briefly, though, and Nowak said she went to her mother's house. Nowak said she never entered Porter's Hadley Mill home that night. </p></p><p><p>Gould, meanwhile, told detectives she had last seen Perdomo at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 16. Gould said Perdomo had arrived at her home the morning of Feb. 16 -- he had driven there from Orange City on Feb. 15 -- and he left her house that afternoon armed with a Glock handgun. He also had his wallet and two cellphones with him and told Gould that he was going to meet someone who owed him money, the arrest report states. </p></p><p><p>When Porter was questioned, he told investigators that Perdomo came to Maine to collect on a $3,000 debt Porter owed him, the report shows. </p></p><p><p>Porter says after Perdomo arrived at the Hadley Mill house, he and Perdomo went out for a ride and drank beer. </p></p><p><p>That may have been the moment when Perdomo telephoned his wife.</p></p><p><p><b>EVIDENCE: THREATS AND BLOOD</b> </p></p><p><p>According to the report, Porter and Perdomo then played pool at the Hadley Mill house. That's when Porter said Perdomo began threatening him and his family, the report shows. </p></p><p><p>Investigators later found drops of blood, a piece of skull and a shattered picture window with traces of blood on it at the Hadley Mill house, the report states. </p></p><p><p>Because they did not have a DNA sample of Perdomo's, investigators then asked Gerardo Perdomo -- Perdomo's father who had gone up to Bangor to search for his son -- for a DNA sample, the report shows. When the results of the blood found at the Hadley Mill house were tested, it showed that it belonged to a male offspring of Gerardo Perdomo. </p></p><p><p>The morning of Feb. 17, police said Porter drove Perdomo's gold Toyota to the parking lot of a Walmart in Bangor. </p></p><p><p>The suspect then walked to a nearby supermarket called the Hannaford Store and threw a plastic bag into a garbage container outside the store, police said. Porter's movements at both the Walmart parking lot and at Hannaford's were caught by surveillance cameras. </p></p><p><p>The plastic bag, according to investigators, contained two cell phones and a black leather wallet. </p></p><p><p>Later that same afternoon, Porter called his friend Jason Roberts and asked Roberts if he could borrow his truck, the report states. When Porter returned the truck two hours later, the vehicle was muddy, police said. </p></p><p><p>On Friday, when Maine investigators questioned Porter in Connecticut -- he had gone there to see his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother -- and confronted the suspect about the contents of the plastic bag, his eyes welled up with tears, the report shows. He refused to tell police where Perdomo's body was. </p></p><p><p>A detective from the Orange Police Department in Orange, Conn. -- the city where Porter's mother lives -- told Maine investigators that Porter told him that when he went to see his family, he told them it would likely be the last time they saw him as a "free man."</p></p><p><p></p></p><p>-----</p>